HARVESTING & GLEANING
Redwood City (& nearby) residents can free-offer or exchange your produce (& seedlings) through the Garden Sharing on the Incredible Edible Mid-Peninsula Facebook Page.
Join hands to harvest fruit trees for Second Harvest and St. Anthony Soup Kitchen. Contact them if you’d like to have a crew come harvest your trees. They harvest from Gilroy to San Mateo. Visit Village Harvest.
Do you like to harvest falling fruit for your own use, on the fly? Do you have a tree you’re willing to let others harvest from anytime that is easily accessible? Check out Falling Fruit for local gardens, for the bigger picture.
If you’re unable to afford fresh produce, CalFresh is a supplemental food program to help individuals and families get the food they need to stay healthy. The CalFresh benefit is provided in an EBT debit card that looks like any other debit card. You can use it to purchase groceries and fresh produce at participating grocery stores and farmers’ markets just like you would any other debit card.It easy to make healthy choices because you can shop for the nutritious foods you and your family prefer. CalFresh public assistance benefits through Second Harvest Food Bank.
GARDENING BETTER
A personalized Vegetable Growing and Companion Planting Guide Cheatsheets from our friends across the pond
For local gardening materials check out these local free/low cost gardening resources.
The best gardening advice, classes and plant clinics that focus on Bay Area microclimates are to be found from the Master Gardener’s of San Mateo & San Francisco Counties. If you’d like to speak to someone in person, drop by the Veterans Memorial Sr. Center in Redwood City on Thursday mornings (check their website after VMSC starts redevelopment), 9am-noon or in Half Moon Bay, 1500 Purisima Creek Rd, Mondays and Thursdays 9am-4pm (650-276-7430). To find out almost anything about gardening in California, the Master Gardeners partner with UCDavis Agriculture and Natural Resources division.
A great primer on herbs from the University of Minnesota Extension.
If you want to garden at home in limited space, check out the Guide to Container Gardens
BUGS & PESTS
Good bugs and bad, learn more about Integrated Pest Management (IPM) courtesy of Master Gardeners & UC Davis. A guide to beneficial insects and the 10 Most Wanted Bugs.
STARTING COMMUNITY GARDENS IN YOUR LOCALE
The original community-wide garden concept at Incredible Edible Todmorden
A complete handbook from the American Community Gardening Association.
. A unique model for getting good food into a community’s hands enlisting unused backyards and any spare inch of growing space. How to Start a CSA Even if You Don’t Have a Farm
San Mateo County Office of Sustainability Community Garden Partnership Program may be able to help you financially and with other resources
If you’d like to start a program in your own locale, read Cultivating Community Gardens: The Role of Local Governments in Creating Healthy, Livable Neighborhoods.
COMPOST
Redwood City & San Carlos residents are welcome to pick up free compost daily, year-round at the Shoreway Environmental Center. 333 Shoreway Road, San Carlos on Weekdays 6am – 6pm & Weekends 8am – 5pm. Proof of residency required. Residents are allowed two 3-cubic feet paper bags of compost, which is equivalent to two 22-gallon garbage carts. Paper bags and shovels are provided. Contact the Shoreway Environmental Center at (650) 802-8355.
Redwood City also has a compost dump box for free to residents to pick up concurrent with the Spring Hazardous Waste drop-off event at the Public Works Department on Broadway. Bring your own containers.
Let us know about compost pickups in other San Mateo cities and we’ll add it to this.
CHIPS & MULCH
Free mulch is available from most tree trimmers IF you are able to accept a dump of 12 cubic yards at your location; watch for them chopping or trimming a tree in your neighborhood. If time is not of essence go online to Get Chip Drop and they’ll contact you when a local trimmer has a load; BE ADVISED, you won’t know when the drop will be. Either way, expect to get a combination of chips and mulch which you’ll need to sort through. You might entice them to bring either chips or mulch with a cash incentive but possibly not – remember, this is “free”.
If a neighbor is having a large tree prune or tree removal, talk to the workers about dropping the chipped wood at your place when they are done for the day. They usually are agreeable because it save them from paying a dump fee.
Redwood City has mulch available, informally, sometimes in a shipping container in Red Morton near the Valota Rd entrance. They will leave the excess not needed by the park at that container.
LANDSCAPE & BUILDING MATERIALS
Driftwood Salvage has home demolition sales on a regular basis where you can find lumber and often landscaping items such as bricks, rocks, stones, etc at excellent prices They also maintain three yards with limited weekend hours.
Join Redwood City Freecycle and/or Freecycle.org (there are two separate groups, don’t ask why) where you can read their offerings or make a WANTED: request for what you’d like.
INCREDIBLE EDIBLE MEETING MINUTES, click HERE